The present application is related to, and claims priority from, Swedish patent application No. 9904204-6, filed Nov. 19, 1999, the disclosure of which is specifically incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.
The present invention relates generally to an antenna device and, particularly, to a contact used with a radiating element where the contact may be used for impedance matching.
Integral contacts on an internal antenna are often used to reduce the number of unreliable contact points in an electronic transmission system. However, the characteristics of a thin and unsupported contact can change through normal use. Thus, a problem with conventional integral contacts is that they still are unreliable and not especially robust.
Impedance matching of an internal antenna is often needed. It is desirable to have as few components as possible involved in the matching of the antenna. The more components used to achieve impedance matching the greater the likelihood is that the electrical characteristics of one will change, and thereby result in impedance mismatch.
What is needed, therefore, is a technique to affect impedance matching of antenna elements that overcome the above described shortcomings of conventional techniques.
An object of the present invention is to facilitate electrical matching of an antenna.
A further object of the present invention is to make a more reliable and durable electrical matching of the antenna.
A still further object of the present invention is to facilitate the manufacture and assembly of an antenna contact element.
These and other objects may be realized by an antenna device for a portable communication device according to the present invention, which includes a support structure, and a generally planar radiating element supported by the support structure. The antenna device further includes at least one first conductive leg connected to a ground plane device and a second conductive leg connected to a feed device, where the at least one first leg and the second leg are supported by the support structure and at a first end, which is connected to the radiating element. Moreover, a matching element is connected between the at least one first leg and the second leg. The matching element provides impedance matching.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.